Acting attorney general says $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund is permanently dead

The Justice Department is permanently abandoning its plan to set up a $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress on Tuesday.

“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” he said in a hearing with the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department’s funding.

Mr. Blanche’s testimony comes after the department announced Monday it would adhere to a temporary injunction blocking further action on the fund while a federal court case in the Eastern District of Virginia is pending.

A hearing in that case is scheduled for June 12, and the Justice Department has until Friday to file its opposing views.

Mr. Blanche suggested the department will continue to fight that lawsuit and similar complaints filed in other jurisdictions despite its decision not to launch the Anti-Weaponization Fund.

“Notwithstanding what we do in those litigations and defending our rights and making sure our rights